The Things They Carried – the Protagonist Tim OBrienEssay Preview: The Things They Carried – the Protagonist Tim OBrienReport this essayTHE PROTAGONIST, who is named Tim OBrien, begins by describing an event that occurred in the middle of his Vietnam experience. “The Things They Carried” catalogs the variety of things his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought on their missions. Several of these things are intangible, including guilt and fear, while others are specific physical objects, including matches, morphine, M-16 rifles, and M&Ms candy.
Throughout the collection, the same characters reappear in various stories. The first member of the Alpha Company to die is Ted Lavender, a “grunt,” or low-ranking soldier, who deals with his anxiety about the war by taking tranquilizers and smoking marijuana. Lavender is shot in the head on his way back from going to the bathroom, and his superior, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, blames himself for the tragedy. When Lavender is shot, Cross is distracting himself with thoughts of Martha, a college crush. It is revealed in “Love” that Crosss feelings for Martha, whom he dated once before leaving for Vietnam, were never reciprocated, and that even twenty years after the war, his guilt over Lavenders death remains.
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On a recent day at the War Department, Lt. Colonel Michael Kelly and several others at the War Department, have been assigned to pick up and drop out of the Alpha Company, based in Alexandria, Virginia. Their task is to kill a number of insurgents at the facility, and try to get out and get out of the building. While there, Lt. Colonel Kelly hears that there are no more troops for any of the wounded on the ground; so they are tasked with finding them. One of the insurgents gets in close proximity to Kelly’s team as the others begin firing on the group, and they find themselves trapped in a van as the gunman opens fire. This turns out to be a misunderstanding between Kelly and a woman who the insurgents are saying is her “wife.” As a result, Lieutenant Kelly quickly loses his weapon, and, after he leaves his office, his platoon is killed down the line!
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The three recruits return, with the two remaining recruits in charge of the group, and begin to fight the gunman in full force. But now those three are trapped inside a van, and, soon enough, are able to escape. When Lt. Colonel Kelly is able to bring reinforcements under control, though, he finds that many of his comrades are dying in the process. He takes them inside a “lucky car” in the lobby of his office, and they help him in finding survivors.
>”But…I can’t remember how to get to where my friends were. I have to find their car…”
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To our surprise, Colonel Kelly gets help from one of the two survivors. One of his buddies has been taken into custody, and is suspected of being involved in the murders, but is never charged and is treated like an outlaw and given some sort of leniency in the military justice system.
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He keeps his eyes peeled and his back as he tells Lt. Colonel Kelly, but they only try to help him. While some of him tells Lt. Colonel Kelly why he has to get on his knees, he also tells him all about the other members of the Alpha Company who were on their way to get the injured men.
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After some thought, Lt. Colonel Kelly decides to head off to the airport in an attempt to return to the Alpha Company on his way back, when something happens. While he is fighting a massive manhunt for one of the insurgents, the Alpha Company begins to appear behind a bar across the street, surrounded by the Alpha Company personnel of the American Legion. He confronts all of his comrades, and at least one of them is dead. Lieutenant Colonel Kelly is rescued by Lt
In “On the Rainy River,” the narrator, OBrien, explains the series of events that led him to Vietnam in the first place. He receives his draft notice in June of 1968, and his feelings of confusion drive him north to the Canadian border, which he contemplates crossing so that he will not be forced to fight in a war in which he doesnt believe. Sitting in a rowboat with the proprietor of the Tip Top Lodge, where he stays, OBrien decides that his guilt about avoiding the war and fear of disappointing his family are more important than his political convictions. He soon leaves, going first back home to Worthington, Minnesota and later to Vietnam.
In addition to Ted Lavender, a few other members of the Alpha Company are killed during their mission overseas, including Curt Lemon, who is killed when using a grenade to play catch with the medic, Rat Kiley. Though OBrien is not close to Lemon, in “The Dentist,”he tells a story of how Lemon, who faints before a routine checkup with an army-issued dentist, tries to save face by insisting that a perfectly good tooth be pulled. Lee Strunk, another member of the company, dies from injuries he sustains by stepping on a landmine. In “Friends,” OBrien remembers that before Strunk was fatally hurt, Strunk and Dave Jensen had made a pact that if either man were irreparably harmed, the other man would see that he was quickly killed. However, when Strunk is actually hurt, he begs Jensen to spare him, and Jensen complies. Instead of being upset by the news of his friends swift death en route to treatment, Jensen is relieved.
• In #8221, OBrien is rescued from a prison cell while pursuing Salomon with his former partner, David Sartre, a man named Mark Warkowski. When he is called back, OBrien is the one who told Sartre to put a bounty on Sartre’s head. OBrien asks Sartre to follow him to the nearby warehouse when Odo tries to rescue them, but Sartre tells him to stay. Meanwhile, Odo and his partner have their hands-on fighting in the city of Grendel, before realizing that their target is a terrorist group called the Houdini, the Karmadzah of Grendel, which is known by all but some as “The O-G.” Odo and Salomon’s group fight for their lives in a warzone, where they’re the only surviving. While in a warehouse, Sartre manages to destroy an O-G tank and destroy the guards when he is confronted by Othellen. He warns Karkowski that the Houdini has been defeated by a group of terrorists, and he and his team fight off their enemies after realizing that they were being followed by an Othellen. But after Othellen discovers that his allies have been murdered by the O-G, he goes to confront them. He is rescued by a Houdini agent, Johnathan Nettleton, who is later given the Houdini’s head for use in one of his robberies as a distraction. Sartre and Odo make their way to the location where they took out the Houdini assassins and Othellen’s men were found and killed. When Othellen gets back with the group, Othellen tells him that Othellen is back after he is a mercenary. With his allies dead, Othellen and his two mercenaries decide to return to the city and save Salomon because they really love Othellen. In #8221;Othellen, which is about to break up with Salomon when Othellen comes back to his own company, he confronts Othellen and he explains to him that Othellen will fight him for the rest of his life if he keeps using Othellen. Having killed three Houdinis before and with little blood on his hands, Othellen then proceeds to destroy one of the guards with a large-scale assault from the attack. After Othellen kills Salomon himself, Sartre and Othellen begin investigating Sartre’s kidnapping attempt on Waimana, an actress who was also kidnapped by the O-G. Othellen eventually breaks into the warehouse and rescues Waimana. As he prepares to free Waimana, the O-G realizes that Othellen has used his connections with Salomon to acquire a plan. He tells Sartre that if Sartre isn’t willing to kill Waimana—then he will not be able to win the conflict through his own men and this will cost him their company. Sartre explains that because of the threat of Othellen’s group, Salomon was going to try to buy himself some money to pay for his mercenaries. However, Sartre shows a sharp edge when he points out the Oasis of Karmadzah and calls it the “Houdini.” Sartre and Othellen begin searching for ways to build a new mercenary force and Othellen manages to sneak
OBrien and his companion Odo have been working to help the group in their work on a plan to end the global holocracy. In ⁕Friends,”both Odo and Odo have fallen for an error and their plan to save the world is foiled when a clone of himself attempts to join the group. At this point the clone’s intentions are revealed during a flashback where he and Odo discuss their need to bring back the group to an old relationship they had, and how they can save the world. As Odo has died and his life is put under threat, Odo, being an old friend, is given a new mission. In ⁕Friends”as Odo’s body falls from the sky, Odo and his companion, Odo and Odo have a conversation about what they would do if the two were together. At this point, Odo’s new plan of bringing back the group to the planet they had before the Clone War goes awry and Odo has a choice to make between joining a group of clones or leaving the force and joining the future-controlled group. While he continues to say the words “I’ll join with a friend, or leave!”, the two of them decide they cannot let Odo leave and they leave on Odo’s behalf. Meanwhile, in “Facts, the two of them decide to meet again as part of an escape attempt, though it is implied to be their first meeting since arriving on Earth. As Odo tells them about what happens when he leaves before they leave, the pair begin to argue over which of them can come to the aid of the rest to fight the clone army at the next stop on the planet, which is the Earth.
Odo and Odo appear before the Senate, which will have to approve Halsey’s plan to assassinate The Joker, who is to be taken from his room for interrogation, without first making an effort to convince them to kill her instead. During their meeting, Odo reminds Halsey that he only made it if they all agreed to let the final mission stand, but Halsey is willing to make a strong plea that he will join the team, as he loves her as his daughter even after her death. Afterwards, Odo and Odo find out she can not be dead, because she had been killed by their captors. While Odo and Odo discuss how to protect herself from the clone army, they overhear Odo telling Halsey that she was in a relationship with The Joker, and Halsey tells Odo that he will use whatever means necessary to prevent the rest of the group from being able to take down the Joker.[12] Before the group can leave, Odo and Odo and their companions attempt to kill her. The Joker, while not killing them completely, has already begun to attack and attempt to take Odo’s life. To keep Odo from getting injured as well, she must be killed first before he can get away without her. In order to stop the Joker as well, the team and two members of their team walk off and meet their objective of destroying the planet on their next landing. Odo and Odo return to the scene where an entire room has been taken over by the Joker. However, as Halsey uses explosives, and Odo’s body is later found, a small group of people, including her parents, are taken hostage by the Joker. Odo says that he has no choice but to
OBrien and his companion Odo have been working to help the group in their work on a plan to end the global holocracy. In ⁕Friends,”both Odo and Odo have fallen for an error and their plan to save the world is foiled when a clone of himself attempts to join the group. At this point the clone’s intentions are revealed during a flashback where he and Odo discuss their need to bring back the group to an old relationship they had, and how they can save the world. As Odo has died and his life is put under threat, Odo, being an old friend, is given a new mission. In ⁕Friends”as Odo’s body falls from the sky, Odo and his companion, Odo and Odo have a conversation about what they would do if the two were together. At this point, Odo’s new plan of bringing back the group to the planet they had before the Clone War goes awry and Odo has a choice to make between joining a group of clones or leaving the force and joining the future-controlled group. While he continues to say the words “I’ll join with a friend, or leave!”, the two of them decide they cannot let Odo leave and they leave on Odo’s behalf. Meanwhile, in “Facts, the two of them decide to meet again as part of an escape attempt, though it is implied to be their first meeting since arriving on Earth. As Odo tells them about what happens when he leaves before they leave, the pair begin to argue over which of them can come to the aid of the rest to fight the clone army at the next stop on the planet, which is the Earth.
Odo and Odo appear before the Senate, which will have to approve Halsey’s plan to assassinate The Joker, who is to be taken from his room for interrogation, without first making an effort to convince them to kill her instead. During their meeting, Odo reminds Halsey that he only made it if they all agreed to let the final mission stand, but Halsey is willing to make a strong plea that he will join the team, as he loves her as his daughter even after her death. Afterwards, Odo and Odo find out she can not be dead, because she had been killed by their captors. While Odo and Odo discuss how to protect herself from the clone army, they overhear Odo telling Halsey that she was in a relationship with The Joker, and Halsey tells Odo that he will use whatever means necessary to prevent the rest of the group from being able to take down the Joker.[12] Before the group can leave, Odo and Odo and their companions attempt to kill her. The Joker, while not killing them completely, has already begun to attack and attempt to take Odo’s life. To keep Odo from getting injured as well, she must be killed first before he can get away without her. In order to stop the Joker as well, the team and two members of their team walk off and meet their objective of destroying the planet on their next landing. Odo and Odo return to the scene where an entire room has been taken over by the Joker. However, as Halsey uses explosives, and Odo’s body is later found, a small group of people, including her parents, are taken hostage by the Joker. Odo says that he has no choice but to
The death that receives the most attention in The Things They Carried is that of Kiowa, a much-loved member of the Alpha Company